


Lockets

by sal_si_puedes



Series: Lamen Week 2020 [5]
Category: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, M/M, Smut, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-25
Updated: 2020-06-25
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:21:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24910768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sal_si_puedes/pseuds/sal_si_puedes
Summary: In a world where everything is exactly the same as it is in canon save for one small aspect, from the moment they’re born, everyone holds a locket with their soulmate’s picture inside. But the locket can only open when both parts of a set of soulmates already know that they’re soulmates and that they belong together – and only when they’re both willing and ready to acknowledge and to commit their entire selves to what being soulmates implies: being one body, one mind, one heart and one soul – for the rest of their days.Written as a contribution for#Lamen Week 2020over on tumblr - Day 5: Soulmates!AU.
Relationships: Damen/Laurent (Captive Prince)
Series: Lamen Week 2020 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1797085
Kudos: 52
Collections: Lamen Week 2020





	Lockets

**Author's Note:**

> (This is not set in the same universe as "Bleeding Heart", it's an entirely different universe. It's canon-based with just one little addition, and - other than "Bleeding Heart" - this is pretty fluffy, and there is not even a hint of angst inside at the end. :) )
> 
> Thank you, dearest Carrie, fot the beta!

“I always thought it would be Auguste,” said Laurent, his body seamlessly slotted against Damen’s side and Damen’s arm loosely wrapped around his upper body, holding him close. Laurent felt languid and relaxed against Damen, warm and alive, and as if his body had been specifically molded to fit against Damen’s side like that.

Laurent’s fingers were tracing lazy patterns on Damen’s chest, and when Damen let his hand playfully wander down Laurent’s back and between his cheeks, he could feel Laurent’s pulse where he had been buried deep inside of him just a short while ago. The intimacy of this, of lying with Laurent like this, of touching him there felt so intense it hurt.

“Hm?”

Damen blinked. Slowly, he turned his head and brushed his lips against Laurent’s golden hair. “What about Auguste?” _Maybe Laurent’s thoughts had returned to the conversation they had had a couple of days ago, in the gardens,_ Damen thought. _Maybe Laurent was thinking of what had been said and shared between them in the gardens on their first day at the Summer Palace._

“I always thought it would be _him_ ,” Laurent repeated softly, tracing the scar Auguste’s sword had left below Damen’s left collarbone with a tender caress before he turned to lie on his back again, eyes wide open and lips slightly parted.

“The one to leave the battlefield alive?” Damen caught Laurent’s hand in his and gave it a brief squeeze before he brought it to his lips and placed a soft kiss onto Laurent’s knuckles.

Laurent shook his head. “That is not what I meant,” said he, returning the light squeeze of Damen’s hand.

“I know.”

Without letting go of Damen’s hand, Laurent rolled onto his side again, so they came to lie face to face once more. 

“When he died…” Laurent’s voice trailed away, his eyes never leaving Damen’s. He leaned in a little and brushed his lips against Damen’s. They were soft and sweet, like a ripe apricot, and Damen caught the lower one between his teeth and softly bit down. He kept it between his teeth for just a moment before he let go of it again.

“When he had died, after Marlas, I never thought… You know that we, that he and I never… That nothing ever happened between us, nothing of that kind, but I had never been able to imagine it being anyone else but him. I tried to open it once, the night before the battle. It didn’t… It didn’t open, so I thought that maybe he didn’t want a soulmate, not one like me. I was still very young back then…” Laurent paused and remained silent for the longest time. Damen waited patiently until he spoke again. “I never tried to open it again, not once, after Marlas. I had no reason. I almost even forgot about it at times.”

Damen knew that Laurent was not telling him the truth right then, and he understood why. He had never forgotten his either, even though he had pushed it as far away from his consciousness as possible.

As a boy, he had thought it would be Nikandros’s picture in there, and they had even tried to open theirs together once, and their boyish hearts had filled with grave disappointment when they hadn’t managed to find out whose pictures were hidden inside.

Then, much later, he was sure, so very sure that it had to be Jokaste, but they had never talked about it, had never given it a try. For the longest time, especially during his captivity at Arles, Damen had told himself that was because they’d simply never gotten around to it. He had told himself that so many times during those first few weeks as Laurent’s prisoner that he’d almost believed it. His soulmate, he had told himself whenever he had thought that things couldn’t become any worse, that they couldn’t become any more shameful or hurt any more, his soulmate had cast him in cuffs and a collar and had sent him to Vere as a personal pleasure slave for the Veretian Crown Prince.

“Nikandros has kept mine,” Damen murmured, cupping Laurent’s face gently and bringing their lips together in a featherlight kiss. “He saved it when Ios was thrown into chaos, along with the lion pin.” He had told Laurent about the pin and how Nikandros had risked his life committing high treason when he had retrieved it from the palace and had kept it, not for Damen, whom he had thought dead, but for himself, a token of the past. He hadn’t told him about the locket yet. “I have it over there.” He nodded over Laurent’s shoulder in the direction of the closet across the room. “Do you want me to get it?”

Laurent nodded.

While Damen rose and made his way over to the closet, Laurent got up as well and retrieved something from the large wooden chest his servants had brought for him from Vere, from their last station at the border. When Damen returned to the bed, Laurent was standing at its foot, holding something in his hand, his fingers curled around it in a loose first.

Damen closed the distance and held out what he was holding in his hand. His eyes stared at what was lying in his palm, an intricately ornamented golden locket. 

He watched as Laurent brought his hand next to his own and uncurled his fingers. Another locket, as precious and delicate as the one Damen was holding. 

Damen held his breath as he reached out with his other hand, carefully touching his fingers to the one in Laurent’s palm. It was warm, much warmer than he had expected.

“Beautiful,” said Damen, and Laurent nodded, releasing a long, shaky breath. 

Laurent looked up, and Damen’s heart skipped a beat. The look on Laurent’s face tore the earth open below his feet, and it felt as if he was falling. It felt like the climax they had just shared, only multiplied in intensity by the number of the stars in the universe. He gasped.

The next moment they were lying on the bed again, legs entangled and their bodies so close to each other it felt as if they were on fire, Damen frantically pulling Laurent against him, on top of him, his fingers between Laurent’s legs, opening him up once more.

“Make love to me,” Laurent breathed against Damen’s suddenly brightly burning skin, his lips trembling with need. “I want you to make love to me—"

Damen moaned, pushing against Laurent’s chest with his flat hand, making him sit up on his knees with one leg on each side of Damen’s hips. Damen reached for his already achingly hard cock and brought its tip to Laurent’s entrance. 

Laurent’s body opened up to him like a locket, and their helpless moans as Damen slid inside became one. 

“Make love to me,” Laurent whispered, his closed fist touching against Damen’s chest, right over Damen’s heart, and Damen nodded. 

It wasn’t elegant or refined, it was frantic and desperate and raw, and it didn’t last very long either. Their bodies took over, overwhelmed by the ever-growing need that was fueled by the desire born from their hearts, minds and souls.

Climax was blinding, and it tore a sound from Laurent’s lips that Damen lacked the words to describe. He heard someone screaming, and the look in Laurent’s eyes told him that that someone was him. It was overwhelming and all-consuming, and unlike anything Damen had felt before.

The next thing Damen realized was that he was clutching Laurent to his chest, their bodies still pulsing with the final waves of their release. Continuous moans were falling from Laurent’s lips against the skin of Damen’s throat, and the pressure of Laurent’s fist against his chest between their bodies felt like a constant reminder of the object he was clutching in his own fist, trembling against the small of Laurent’s back.

His cock gave another twitch when he struggled to sit up, still holding Laurent close. He bent his legs, wrapping them around Laurent and crossing his ankles behind Laurent’s back, and Laurent moaned when their new position drew Damen in even deeper into his body. 

Damen let Laurent become lax in his arms, letting him rest against his chest and shoulder, his breaths slowly, slowly calming and becoming more regular again. He held him like this until he could feel a hint of a kiss against his skin, and the hint of a smile.

He let Laurent draw a long, satisfied breath, and then he let him withdraw a little, his eyes still closed and the smile playing around the corners of his mouth like the soft sounds of a kithara. 

When Laurent opened his eyes and their gazes met, time stopped. 

“Do you want us to open them now?” asked Laurent, his voice barely more than a gentle whisper and unimaginably kind. 

Damen shook his head. “Do you?”

“No,” said Laurent, opening his first and placing his locket onto the linens next to them. “I don’t need to,” he added and watched as Damen lay his locket next to Laurent’s. “Not anymore.”

Damen nodded and reached up to turn Laurent’s head so he could kiss him again. He didn’t need to anymore, either. He had everything he needed right there, in his arms.

Everything already was as it should be. He was home. 

~fin~

**Author's Note:**

> I'm [sal-si-puedes](https://sal-si-puedes.tumblr.com/) on tumblr - come and say "Hi!"!


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